SIR IVONE KIRKPATRICK must have made himself unpopular with his
former colleagues by saying that 'staffs in all departments, including the Foreign Office, . . . should be gradually but ruthlessly cut.' To disagree with such an expert as Sir Ivone is presumptuous, but I cannot help thinking that in the Foreign Office, at least, the position is not as bad as he makes out. After all, if the Foreign Office really did employ many too many people, presumably Sir Ivone would have done something about it during the years that he was Permanent Under-Secretary. The 'prolifera- tion' of staff that he complains of cannot all have taken place since his retirement at the beginning of this year. Sir Ivone thinks that to reduce staffs would reduce the work, and he pleads that 'Ministers and their advisers be given time to think.' In case anyone should be tempted to say that Sir Ivone's support of the Suez adventure was due to his having no time to think, I should per- haps point out that he cannot have been much worse of in this respect than his colleagues, and that he was almost the only high official in the Foreign Office who approved of the Govern-
Previous page
